Reason To Be A Hero
by Etern
Summary: He's not a hero in the traditional sense, but there might just be something under that icy facade Kagome has never thought of... PreRomance, based on dokuga challenge prompt: hero.


Reason to Be a Hero

By: Kelsey

A/N: Written for Priestess Skye's Challenge on Dokuga! Thank you for the idea!

"Lord Sesshomaru's my hero!" Rin's exclamation filled the clearing with all the excitement only a child could possess. From next to the excitable little girl Kagome raised a dark brow, her lips quirking up in a slight smile as she looked over to Rin.

"Sesshomaru can't be your hero Rin," Kagome shook her head lightly, her smile turning apologetic as Rin looked over at her curiously.

"Why do you say that Kagome?" the little girl asked, cocking her head cutely to the side. Kagome, for a moment, could not help but pause for a moment and take in Rin's naivety. Such a rare thing, even in this time period.

"Well because Rin, Sesshomaru is…a demon."

The reason seemed good enough to Kagome, but apparently it wasn't for Rin. "So? What's wrong with being a demon?"

"Nothing at all!" Kagome was quick to say, "You know that I'm friends with demons—Inuyasha, Kilala, Shippo—it's just that all my friends are different…kinds of demons, and they aren't like Sesshomaru."

"Oh," Rin frowned lightly, her curious brown eyes still peering up at Kagome. "Then what kind of demon is Lord Sesshomaru?"

For a moment Kagome was taken aback, not knowing how to answer such an innocent question. There was no doubt that Lord Sesshomaru was Rin's role model—her father in a less than clear way. But did Rin know the truth about Sesshomaru? Did Rin understand just how murderous her father figure was; did she have any idea of what his name stood for?

"Well," Kagome tried to begin, hesitating. "He's a demon who is very prideful and…"

"You don't think there are any qualities about Lord Sesshomaru that are good?" For her young years, for the naivety and innocence that shrouded her, Rin was still one of the most perceptive people Kagome had ever known. It was uncanny how quickly she caught on to things—especially to things left unsaid.

Blushing at the blunt question—which was, of course, dead on—Kagome looked away over across the field, where she saw Inuyasha and Sesshomaru, as usual, glaring at each other. Even though Sesshomaru had come to the group consenting to join with them in the quest to defeat Naraku, the relations between the two half blood brothers had not improved, even after Sesshomaru had aided Inuyasha in battle numerous times.

But Kagome could not really blame Inuyasha for being ungrateful—the entire group still had suspicions about the demon lord, and what his real intentions in joining them were. Kagome had to admit one thing though, that she doubted her friends could really relate to—in a way, she found Sesshomaru to be an enigma, especially since Rin had arrived with him. What had possessed a little girl to want to follow a murderous demon and why would an emotionless demon want the company of a sweet little girl?

They just did not fit together in anyway and yet…Sometimes, when Kagome saw them together, she could not help but think that in the strangest of ways, they were perfect for each other.

Rin was talkative, Sesshomaru was silent; Rin was sweet, Sesshomaru was callous; Rin loved flowers, Sesshomaru loved destruction. They were the complete opposite and yet they complimented each other and, Kagome believed, they learned from each other.

Just the other day Kagome had watched as Rin chattered on next to Sesshomaru about the weather, the flowers, and any ordinary subject no one really wanted to hear…But Sesshomaru had listened. Staring out at the sky, his face had remained perfectly impassive throughout Rin's spiel, his eyes still cold but holding a light in them that seemed almost…understanding. As though he understood and, in some sense, forgave Rin for her mindless chatter, and he would not stop her; not until she ran out of breath and she finally fell silent.

Rin was an outcast, a misfit—that much Kagome knew. She was a little human girl and she did the most taboo thing against her species by not only accepting demons, but by traveling with them, loving them, smiling for them. She had an imagination like no other, as Kagome had discovered when Rin asked her to name the stars with her one night, and sometimes her imagination took her far away, to places that it seemed only Sesshomaru, even in his cold silence, seemed to know of.

So how could a demon lord—so callous even to his own kind, so emotionless, so uncaring—care for a little human girl?

There was no answer that Kagome could discover, until Rin asked her that question.

So what was good about Sesshomaru? Kagome looked into Rin's smiling eyes, studied her cherub face lined with laugh lines and faint freckles.

"I think Rin, that you've made Lord Sesshomaru have good qualities."

"Me?" Rin blinked, startled for a moment before another radiant smile overtook her young features, and her head bobbed from side to side frantically. "I don't think so Lady Kagome! Lord Sesshomaru was always good—didn't you ever see?"

Kagome looked at the little girl, incredulous. Always seen what? That Sesshomaru had no heart? That Sesshomaru was cruel to his only sibling, and any human that dared cross his path other than Rin?

"Rin," Kagome began to shake her head, wondering if it was a smart idea to tell the girl the truth about her hero. "I don't think he's—"

"Has he ever been mean to you Lady Kagome?" Rin cut her off, her wide brown eyes staring at Kagome with such a sudden intensity that Kagome felt herself start to flush. And beneath her flush Kagome began to think; when had Sesshomaru ever hurt her? Yes, he glared at her at times, but it had only been when Kagome knew she was being disrespectful. But despite those glares, Sesshomaru never said a thing to her.

And why should he? She had never really extended her hand to him in greeting; she had never treated him like what he wasn't instead of what he was, and she had certainly never favored him with a smile or a soft look or with anything other than disdain.

"I…Well no Rin, Lord Sesshomaru's never done anything to me," Kagome confessed at length, staring back away from the little girl back over to where Sesshomaru sat silently and passively, having taken up ignoring everyone again to stare out into the distance.

What is he seeing? Kagome thought as she watched him; what was he seeing that no one else could? To her there was only the forest, dark, dangerous and mysterious—but what was that same forest to him?

To look at the world from his eyes, to know his thoughts, his feelings…

Kagome felt a thrill go through her that she could not ignore. As though sensing her eyes remaining fixed on him, Sesshomaru's golden eyes, previously staring at nothing were suddenly fastened onto her. They held.

And for the first time, Kagome did not look away. She didn't want to. There was something in those golden depths that she could almost understand, shimmering there in the sunlight; an emotion that was not disgust or anger or even indifference.

No, Sesshomaru was looking at her with eyes that seemed to brighten with—

"Do you see why Lord Sesshomaru's my hero Lady Kagome?" Rin's voice seemed to break through the spell Sesshomaru's gaze seemed to have put her under, and blinking quickly Kagome reluctantly tore her eyes off of Sesshomaru to smile over a Rin, who beamed up at her. Oblivious to what had just happened.

"Uh, do I…?" Kagome muttered helplessly for a moment, her eyes straying without her even thinking back to the proud for of the demon lord, across the clearing from her. He was once again gazing out into the distance, those eyes flat, and his face blank. It almost looked like he had not even acknowledged her at all a moment ago, except for…

He was listening; Kagome could not be sure, but something inside of her told her that the demon lord was still listening to her. He was waiting to hear her response, she realized, staring at his stiff pose. Somehow it almost seemed as though…her opinion mattered to him.

It was the first time that Kagome ever found herself smiling at Sesshomaru, and although he was not looking at her, Kagome knew that he saw. Kagome knew that it mattered to him as much as it suddenly meant to her. Still smiling for Sesshomaru, Kagome looked back at Rin, this little human girl through compassion Sesshomaru had saved, this little human girl who had had a second chance at life by one who destroyed it, and she answered her.

"Yeah Rin, I can see why he's your hero. And maybe…one day he'll be my hero too."

Because she would like that, she knew; she would like that very much.

--

Across the clearing, unbidden to all, a semblance of a smile crept over frozen lips.

To be a hero indeed…

--

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